Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Faux News Must Be Really Confused About the Unemployment Rate

Credit goes to Media Matters as they watch Faux News so we don’t have to:

Fox used a dishonest comparison of two different measures of unemployment to suggest the unemployment rate has nearly doubled since President Obama took office. During a segment criticizing the Obama administration for its messaging on the economy, a Fox & Friends graphic claimed that the "real unemployment rate" had increased from 7.8% in 2009 to 14.7% now ... But in order to make the claim that unemployment had increased from 7.8% to 14.7% during Obama's time in office, Fox had to conflate two different statistics and completely distort Obama's jobs record.

Media Matters displayed how the U-6 measure jumped after December 2007 but has been coming down since it peaked during late 2009. Our graph simply shows the U-3 measure as well, which also jumped after December 2007 but has been coming down since it peaked during late 2009.